In the past, chemical lasers have used mixing of oxidizer in fuel streams to produce the lasing fluid. A recently developed method of mixing the streams is called the hypersonic wedge method. In this method, the oxidizer is produced in a combuster and is accelerated to a supersonic Mach number by a converging-diverging nozzle. Wedges are placed in the exit plane of the primary (oxidizer) nozzle and the fuel is injected into the primary steam from the bases of the wedges (fuel nozzles). This arrangement is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Existing nozzles have the wedges completely immersed in the primary stream and this is not always desirable due to the nozzle having large boundary layers.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an advanced chemical laser cavity fuel injection system in which the wedges for the fuel nozzles are not completely immersed in the primary stream of the primary nozzle.
Another object of this invention is to provide an advanced chemical laser cavity fuel injection system that has improved performance by the specific arrangement of the wedges used in the system.
Another object of this invention is to provide an arrangement which reduces power loss.
Still another object of this invention is to provide cantilever wedge arrangement of the wedges in which the wedges terminate on one side before the boundary layer region of the primary nozzle on this side is penetrated.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an arrangement in which the secondary nozzle wedges are less expensive to fabricate and easier to maintain.
Still another object of this invention is to provide secondary wedges that are shorter in length and therefore less costly to build.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be obvious to those skilled in this art.